Why Jew Suss became a hit

After reviewing these two movies I think the biggest reason why Jew Suss became a "hit" at the theaters and with Germans came from the fact that it was a story. As I watched the movie, the themes that resonated throughout the movie came through the narrative - not this in your face, blunt and sometime aggressive fear that was evident in the Eternal Jew. One of the most common themes that we have seen throughout this class is the ability for the audience to relate to the movie, in some way shape in form, and leave the theater with and understanding regarding the next step. I think with Jew Suss's dramatic and narrative influence the audience could walk away from the movie understanding the "danger" the Jews posed for the survival of the German race, and therefore could stand behind the Reich's decision to exterminate the Jews without questions the rational behind this decision.

However, the Eternal Jew took a different approach which I believe instilled the wrong sense of fear and anxiety in the audience. The music, the pictures, the dreaded spread of the Jews shown over maps I believe offended and turned off the audience from watching and grasping the ideology of the movie. While it reiterated many of the same ideas that Jew Suss put forth, its inability to draw the audience in and constant reminder of the parasitic components of the Jews pushed them away from understanding the movie for what Goebbles and the Reich hoped it would portray. It is evident that Jew Suss enthralled the audience with its story-telling baseline, and it provided a face for the what the German race should be afraid of, without completely scaring them and pushing them away from remembering and applying the themes of the movie to their life.